Dr. Anna Grichting is an architect, urbanist and musician from Switzerland and graduated with a Doctor of Design in Urbanism from Harvard University. She has lived, worked and studied in England, Ireland, Switzerland, the USA, and the Gulf region, and conducted research on Cyprus, Korea, Berlin and Qatar. She is passionate about using arts and design to create a more beautiful and sustainable world, through co-creative, interdisciplinary, holistic and systems based approaches to projects. She has spent many years working on bridging borders, in particular the designing of Healing Ecologies in Landscapes of Conflict. Her Architect diploma was a project for the Berlin Wall, and her PhD Doctor of Design a project and Master Plan for the Cyprus Green Line Buffer Zone.
Currently, she is Lead Research Consultant at Qatar University for the M-NEX research grant on Urban Design for the Food Water Energy Nexus, that she was awarded with an international consortium of researchers. She is a also nominator and technical reviewer for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in Geneva.
She was recently a Professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at Qatar University, teaching courses in Sustainable Architecture, Urban and Landscape Design, and Architectural Design Projects and conducting research on topics such as Public Art and Public Realm, Food Security and Food Urbanism in Drylands, Food-Water-Energy Nexus Design, Urban Biodiversity, Urban Forestry, Blue Urbanism, and the Urban Legacies of Mega Events. Prior to working in Qatar, she worked on an education initiave for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in Geneva. Anna’s academic experiences also include teaching and researching as a fellow at the Universities of Geneva, Harvard, MIT and Vermont, where she was an instructor for the Balkans Peace Parks Academic Expedition Summer Course.
Her research interests include Public Art and Public Realm, Urban Agriculture in Drylands, Food-Water-Energy Nexus Design, Urban Biodiversity, Urban Forestry, Blue Urbanism, the Urban Legacies of Mega Events, and Healing Ecologies in Border Landscapes of Conflict. She has organised international workshops and symposia, published numerous book chapters and journal papers and given keynote speeches and papers at international conferences. She has also participated in Art Exhibitions, namely Stitching the Buffer Zone in Nicosia, Cyprus. As a musician, she has performed in many countries and released several CDs, including Border Meetings and Sufi Moon, the latest being Desert Bridges in Qatar in 2014.